So, it seems the long, drawn out saga of Mass Effect 3 is coming to a close. The news media is phasing out related stories. The anger for the ending subdued as fans wait for that new DLC, one eyebrow raised in trepidation.

Over the last month and a half, while doing research for any of the several different articles I’ve written about Mass Effect 3, whether it be my counterpoint to Jordan’s Defense, or my recent analysis, I’ve encountered a lot of Mass Effect 3 related media. From video guides for strategies and tactics, to heartfelt pleas of change, to conspiracy theories or rants, Ive seen ‘em all. Including a heck of a lot of memes.

“Speculations for Everyone!” but especially Keanu.

Like MrBTongue has said in his Tasteful, Understated Nerdrage videos, “for whatever reason, people really like Mass Effect.” A whole heck of a lot, and even more surprisingly, across a large swath of the cultural landscape. If there was a trendy sci-fi series to like other than Star Wars, it seems Mass Effect was pretty much it. I mean you don’t end up with pornography for your series unless you do, right?

Actually, no. It’s the internet, so maybe you do.

So it’s not the porn, or the fan-fiction, or the even the often fantastic fan art that really shows just how many people love this series. No, what I find fascinating is that for whatever reason the Mass Effect fan base has made quite a number of music videos to show their love for Shepard and company. Maybe it’s just me, but making music always seemed the purview of the popular and this penchant for crafting tunes for Turians to dance to shows just how far reaching Mass Effect was in the public consciousness.

I say “was” because at least for myself, I’m done. Aside from the Multiplayer (which I’m finding quite addictive) it’s time to move on. So I want to send the Mass Effect series a fond farewell as it exits both the news cycle and my heart. However, since I found quite a few of these music videos to be quite entertaining, I figured I’d do that by sharing them with you.

So what follows are the cream of the crop, the best of the best of the online Mass Effect melodies set to moving (and occasionally not so moving) pictures. All with a minimum of dubstep! I give you . . .

The Top 5
Mass Effect Music Videos on the Internet
(by Category)

Take it away Mixmaster Mordin!

To see more Mass Effect on Garry’s Mod Insanity mode, check out Legion and Friends. Thank me later.

5) Shepard’s Spectacular Speech Sung Soundly

Ah the classic AMV. Mixing a favorite song with some favorite footage, ideally trying to create a theme that links the two together. It’s a tradition that any anime fan was already well aware of, but now thanks to YouTube, so is the rest of the world.

But while a lot of those are pretty cool, none of them capture a scene quite as perfectly as this one. Taking one of the more specific traits of everyone’s Commander Shepard, the inspiring pep talk, and combining it with easily the best song from one of the most “meh” Disney films, Mulan, we get this great moment of Shepard singing the disparate crew of Mass Effect 2 into a fearsome fighting force.

If there’s one thing Shep’s good at, it’s making a man out his crew. Just ask Garrus. He went and became goddamn Batman of Omega after ME1.

4) Re-re-re-re-remix Effect . . . IN SPACE!

Considering the fact that the vast majority of the actual music in Mass Effect is inspired by the moodier electronica of the eighties, it’s not surprising that it gets remixed quite a bit. Heck, there’s at least one official album of remixes available. Besides, it IS a video game, and there are entire sites devoted just to remixing just video game music out there.

From turning the awesome “Uncharted Worlds” map music into a dance floor epic or into an NES classic, taking some of the actual dance music and turning them lo-fi, to making the Illusive Man’s theme smoother than he is, there’s a ridiculous amount of good stuff.

Then there’s the VO remixes. Oh man the VO remixes. They are a delight, and often hilarious.

Like I said, after the direct tribute videos, remixes take the cake when it comes to sheer amount of stuff to find. Even BioWare themselves got on this train, remixing one of the ads for the third installment into something a lot like their multiplayer mode: repetitive as hell but strangely alluring.

But for my theoretical internet dollar, I have to go with this piece, called Space Effect. Pulling together a bunch of different elements, mostly from ME3, it is TEH SEXX0RZ as the kids might say: